racing and safety Need Historic Roll Cage Evidence!

[markmac]

There are various rules and regulations for almost every different configuration of 1600/2002 BMW ever built per various sanctioning bodies for various classes.

 

Which model are you building?

 

mac.

Yes there were.  The rules changed all the time.  Welding the cage to plates and then bolting to the flimsy sheet metal is.....well.....dumb.  At some point if I sell the car and it ends up in Europe then the next owner can go to the trouble of cutting the cage off of the frame, mount the plates to the bottom and bolt to the sheet metal and through bolt per FIA standards.  I have been trying to restore the car as much as possible to what it was in its period - so long as it isn't a step backward in either performance or safety.  Welding plates to the bottom bars is a step back in safety.  AlpinA welded the tubes to the frame rails as well as can clearly be seen in this image of the front left.  Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the post.....

 

 

www.alpinabmw2002.com

[turbophil]

So the main hoop is welded to plates on the floor but not the front down tubes?  Why not bend a piece around the inner sill and weld to that?  

[markmac]

I mis-spoke, inner sill is where the front bars and main hoop were welded.  We could see the areas where the cage had been cut free from the sill.  Then the did a hokey job of splicing tube back on and then extend to the plates that were bolted to the floor.  It was so (SO) bad.  Incredible really that someone would actually drive the car this way (in a real race).  I can't imagine that the car could pass any sort of tech the way it was.  Regardless of what the FIA rules are now, the car won't have an issue passing tech here in the US for the cage that is in it now.

 

www.alpinabmw2002.com